What better way to spend your Halloween Day and All Saints Day than to indulge in countless vegetarian food items and vegan goods? The FREE 14th Annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival has extended to 2 days this year! One of the largest and most popular vegetarian festivals, Boston’s annual veggie get down is occurring this weekend , October 31st and November 1st. We are really excited to be a part of the festival again this year and are SUPER excited they have decided to expanded the festival to 2 days.

The event is chalk full of free vegetarian food samples, including many up and coming products, vegan clothing and footwear, vegetarian books and other gifts. Since this year’s festival is two days long, there are even more great speakers and cooking demos including a holiday cooking demo from a Vegan Culinary Arts professor, a comedy hour, a Vegetarian 101 panel, and so much more! We of course will be there selling our vegan sneakers, t shirts, handbags, and now our NEWEST line of Organic, Fair Trade, and Vegan Children’s and Baby line. So come on down and fill your belly with veggie snacks before celebrating Halloween and be sure to get some early ethical holiday shopping in! Just please be sure and stop by the Autonomie Project table and say hello to Anne and Gina :)

This Saturday was filled with free vegan treats and new vegan companies galore! The Boston Vegetarian Society held their 13th annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival and we at AP set up a table and provided them with t shirts. However, we also had a pretty great time ourselves talking with people and checking out all the other companies, and especially the food!

The day started off in a flurry of running from the bank to the coffee shop and then to set up all after a night of Halloween fun! So we were tired to say the least. Once we had the table set and the doors opened our first experience of the morning was a woman who started talking to us, but then proceeded to drool on the table and walk away. We weren’t sure exactly what to make of this or how to even clean up the drool. We were immediately nervous that this would be a precursor to the rest of the day!

So I (Gina) took a break from the table and left Anne to deal with the drool! I ventured out into the crowds of people and explored all the great tables. The food was spectacular and companies came from as far as Atlanta and Chicago to display at the event. As a vegan of almost 9 years I was more than excited to sample everything. I tried everything from raw food bars to vegan quesadillas! I must tell you about this new and exciting vegan cheese company called Teese! They not only make pizza style mozzarella but NACHO CHEESE!! And it melts and tastes just like ballpark nachos! I bought a tray of chips and the cheese, which was help yourself!! I loaded up my chips and I felt like a child again. I must urge you to check out Teese Nacho Cheese Sauce. They aren’t sold all over the country yet, but you can always order them from Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe or Pangea.

And speaking of Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe, they traveled all the way from Atlanta GA to attend the festival. We were happy to finally meet them, as they have been carrying our products for some time now! If you haven’t already, you should definitely check them out!! You can get any type of vegan item you need from shoes, to sweets, to cheese! No seriously, they are an awesome store and great people.

After venturing to their table I was able to enjoy some delicious local treats such as Fiore’s Bakery (mmm cupcakes) and the Buddha Hut Restaurant. Trader Joe’s, Boston Organics, and out local Harvest Food Co-op were all there giving out free samples of natural foods and promoting their business. We were a little bummed on Trader Joe’s, as they were pulling many people away from the local co-op! They even began throwing snacks into the crowd, not only hitting people, but hitting the local co-op’s table. It was just a little bothersome, and want to encourage you to support your local stores!

So after all the free foods and sampling new products, I returned to help Anne out at our table. Let me tell you, it was exciting and engergizing to talk to everyone at the festival. People seemed very excited about our shoes, bags, t shirts, and especially our new winter items: organic scarves, fingerless gloves, and hats! Anne was even interviewed by Emerson students, so keep an eye out for that video soon. It was great to get a chance to talk politics, veganism, fair trade, and just say hi to some of our fans and new customers! Thanks again for everyone who stopped by, the Boston Vegetarian Society, and all the companies and organizations that came out. We are excited about next year and I can’t wait to get my hands on some of that Teese! Hope to see you all next year.

For all you New Englanders out there, rock on and bring your veggies to this weekend’s Vegetarian Food Festival in Boston!

For 13 years, the all-volunteer Boston Vegetarian Society has thrown quite the party at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center at the Roxbury Community College. Enjoy a full day and a packed house of yummy food sampling, great shopping, helpful cooking demos, and interesting speakers. Not to mention free admission and free parking!

The longest running event of its kind in the country, the festival is a resource for vegetarians and vegans, and for anyone wanting to include a greater variety of healthy and delicious plant-based foods in their diets. It also interests those wanting to live in greater harmony with animals and the environment.In the past, this event has attracted thousands of visitors from all over the country. People actually pilgrimage to this thing – it’s THAT cool.

If you go, make sure to check out Autonomie’s sponsorship table. We’ll have all of our goodies for sale, including our new super cute organic cotton winter accessories from Peru. You can also pick up a hot BVFF organic cotton t-shirt, supplied by yours truly.